Yorkshire, England was the setting for two great novels（小说）of the 19th century. These were Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre and Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. The youngest sister, Anne, was also a gifted novelist, and her books have the same extraordinary quality as her sisters'.

　　Their father was Patrick Bronte, born in Ireland. He moved with his wife, Maria Bronte, and their six small children to Haworth in Yorkshire in 1820. Soon after, Mrs. Bronte and the two eldest children died, leaving the father to care for the remaining three girls and a boy.

　　Charlotte was born in 1816. Emily was born in 1818 and Anne in 1820. Their brother Branwell was born in 1817. Left to themselves, the children wrote and told stories and walked over the hills. They grew up largely self-educated. Branwell showed a great interest in drawing. The girls were determined to earn money for his art education. They took positions as teachers or taught children in their homes.

　　As children they had all written many stories, Charlotte, as a young girl, alone wrote 22 books, each with 60 to 100 pages of small handwriting. Therefore, they turned to writing for income. By 1847, Charlotte had written The Professor; Emily, Wuthering Heights; an Anne, Agnes Grey. After much difficulty, Anne and Emily found a publisher（出版商）, but there was no interest shown in Charlotte's book. (It was not published until 1859). However, one publisher expressed an interest in seeing more of her work. Jane Eyre was already started, and she hurriedly finished it. It was accepted at once; thus each of the sisters had a book published in 1847.

　　Jane Eyre was immediately successful; the_other_two, however, did not do so well. People did not like Wuthering Heights. They said it was too wild, too animal-like. But gradually it came to be considered one of the finest novels in the English language. Emily lived only a short while after the publication of the book, and Anne died in 1849.

　　Charlotte published Shirley in 1849, and Villette in 1853. In 1854 she married Arthur Bell Nicholls. But only a year later, she died of tuberculosis（肺结核）as her sisters had.

(1)What did the Bronte sisters want to do for Branwell Bronte? ________

[　　]

(2)We know from the text that ________.

[　　]

A．Jane Eyre was published in 1847

B．Charlotte Bronte wrote 22 books in all

C．the Bronte sisters received good education

D．Patrick Bronte helped his daughters with their writing

(3)Which of the following was published after the death of its writer? ________

[　　]

(4)The underlined words“the other two”in the 5th paragraph refer to ________.

[　　]

A．Shirley and Villette

B．The Professor and Agnes Grey

C．Agnes Grey and Wuthering Heights

D．The professor and Wuthering Heights

(5)What do we know about the Bronte sisters from the text? ________

[　　]

A．Their novels interested few publishers.

B．None of them had more than two books published.

C．None of them lived longer than 40 years old.

D．Emily was the least successful of the three.

　　Engineering students are supposed to be examples of practicality and rationality（理性）, but when it comes to my college education I am an idealist and a fool. In high school I wanted to be an electrical engineer and, of course, any reasonable student with my aims would have chosen a college with a large engineering department, many famous professors and lots of good labs and research equipment. But that's not what I did.

　　I chose to study engineering at a small liberal-arts（文科）university that doesn't even offer a major in electrical engineering. Obviously, this was not a practical choice; I came here for more noble reasons. I wanted a broad education that would provide me with flexibility（灵活）and a value system to guide me in my job. I wanted to open my eyes and expand my vision（眼界）by communicating with people who weren't studying science or engineering. My parents, teachers and other adults praised me for such a wise choice. They told me I was wise and grown-up beyond my 18 years, and I believed them.

　　I headed off to the college and sure I was going to have an advantage over those students who went to big engineering“factories”where they didn't care if you had values or were flexible. I was going to be a complete engineer: technical expert and excellent humanist all in one.

　　Now I'm not so sure. Somewhere along the way my noble ideas crashed into reality, as all noble ideas finally do. After three years of struggling to balance math, physics and engineering courses with liberal-arts courses, I have learned there are reasons why few engineering students try to reconcile（协调）engineering with liberal-arts courses in college.

　　The reality that has blocked my path to become the typical successful student is that engineering and the liberal arts simply don't mix as easily as I supposed in high school. Individually they shape a person in very different ways. The struggle to reconcile the two fields of study is difficult.

(1)Why did the author choose to study engineering at a small liberal-arts university? ________

[　　]

A．He intended to become an engineer and humanist.

B．He intended to be a reasonable student with noble ideals.

C．He wanted to be an example of practicality and rationality.

D．He wanted to communicate with liberal-arts students

(2)According to the author, by communicating with people who study liberal arts, engineering students can ________.

[　　]

A．become noble idealists

B．broaden their knowledge

C．find a better job in the future

D．balance engineering and liberal arts

(3)When the author says“Engineering students are supposed to be examples of practicality and rationality, but when it comes to my college education I am an idealist and a fool”at the beginning of the passage, he actually means ________.

[　　]

A．he has failed to achieve his ideal aims

B．he is not a practical and rational student

C．his choice of attending to a small liberal-arts university is reasonable

D．his idea of combining engineering with liberal-arts is noble and wise

(4)The author suggests in this passage that ________.

[　　]

A．liberal-arts students are supposed to take engineering courses

B．technical experts with a wide vision are expected in the society

C．successful engineering students, are more welcomed in the society

D．engineering universities with liberal-arts courses are needed

　　He has lived through various dangers but time may be running out for the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat.

　　On September 11, Israel（以色列）announced its decision to remove him, following several Palestinian suicide bomb attacks on Israel.“He should be punished for the killings,” an Israeli official said, “He has done nothing to stop the terrorist groups.”

　　But the decision has angered many other countries. China said that Arafat is the true leader, elected by the Palestinian people, and removing him would harm the peace in the Middle East. This idea is shared by other governments.

　　Arafat himself said,“They can kill me, but never get me out of my country.” He has spent most of his life in danger as the most important aim of Israel. But, just like a cat with nine lives, Arafat escaped every time.

　　For years he has made a practice of sleeping in a different bed each night, thinking a moving person is harder to hit. In 1985, Israel sent fighter planes to kill Arafat. The wild bombing destroyed his office in Tunis but Arafat himself was unhurt. In 1992, the aircraft in which he was flying over north Africa broke in two during a crash landing. The pilot was killed but he managed to remain alive.

　　What is so unbelievable is that he always remains calm in great danger.

　　Israeli tanks and planes attacked his office building in Ramallah in December, 2001. When they saw the attackers coming, Arafat's bodyguards ignored his orders to stay still and carried him to safety underground. Seconds later. several bombs were dropped nearby. Though safe, his bodyguards were so frightened that they were wet in sweat.

　　But, Arafat, with Israeli tanks only 200 meters away, showed no fear at all. He stayed in the damaged office, talking by phone with foreign leaders in hope of preventing further attacks from Israel.

　　All these experiences have made him a beloved leader to his people and an enemy to some others.

　　But has he used up the last of his nine lives? Only time will tell.

(1)Which of the following statements cannot be used to describe Arafat?

[　　]

A．He went to visit a few foreign countries last year.

B．He is not afraid of death in face of his enemy.

C．His office used to be in Tunis.

D．He remained alive during an air crash in 1992.

(2)According to the passage, which statement is true? ________

[　　]

A．In 1992, Arafat's plane crashed in south Africa.

B．Israeli officers thought Arafat himself sent the terrorist groups to Israel.

C．China is the only country against Israel's decision of removing Arafat.

D．Being Palestinian leader, Arafat would rather die in his own country than be driven away from his people.

(3)What did the author mean by saying“just like a cat has nine lives”when he talked about Arafat? ________

[　　]

A．Arafat is as clever as a cat.

B．Arafat can live as long as a cat.

C．Arafat can stay alive after accidents or disasters as if he has nine lives.

D．Arafat should have died for at least 8 times.

(4)The underlined word“ignore”can be replaced by ________.

[　　]

A．obey the instructions

B．take no notice of

C．pay much attention to

D．give out orders

(5)What's the writer's attitude towards Arafat's future, judging from the last sentence of the passage? ________

[　　]

　　Olaf Stapledon wrote a book called First and Last Men, in which he looked millions of years ahead. He told of different men and of strange civilizations（文明）, broken up by long“dark ages”in between. In his view, what is called the present time is no more than a moment in human history and we are just the First Men. In 2000 million years from now, there will be the Eighteenth or Last Men.

　　However, most of our ideas about the future are really very short-sighted. Perhaps we can see some possibilities for the next fifty years. But the next hundred? The next thousand? The next million? That’s much more difficult.

　　When men and women lived by hunting 50000 years ago, how could they even begin to picture modern life? Yet to men of 50000 years from now, we may seem as primitive（原始的）in our ideas as the Stone-Age hunters do to us. Perhaps they will spend their days gollocking to make new spundels, or struggling with their ballalators through the cribe. These words, which I have just made up, have to stand for things and ideas that we simply can’t think of.

　　So why bother even to try imagining life far in the future? Here are two reasons. First, unless we remember how short our own lives are compared with the whole human history, we are likely to think our own interests are much more important than they really are. If we make the earth a poor place to live on because we are careless or greedy（贪婪）or quarrelsome, our grandchildren will not bother to think of excuses for US.

　　 Second, by trying to escape from present interests and imagine life far in the future, we may arrive at quite fresh ideas that we can use ourselves. For example, if we imagine that in the future men may give up farming, we can think of trying it now. So set your imagination free when you think about the future.

(1) A particular mention made of Stapledon’s book in the opening paragraph ________.

[　　]

A．serves as a description of human history

B．serves as an introduction to the discussion

C．shows a disagreement of views

D．shows the popularity of the book

(2) The text discusses men and women 50000 years ago and 50000 years from now in order to show that ________.

[　　]

A．human history is extremely long

B．life has changed a great deal

C．it is useless to plan for the next 50 years

D．it is difficult to tell what will happen in the future

(3) Spundels and ballalators are used in the text to refer to ________.

[　　]

A．tools used in farming

B．ideas about modern life

C．unknown things in the future

D．hunting skills in the Stone Age

(4) According to the writer of the text, imagining the future will ________.

[　　]

A．serve the interests of the present and future generation

B．enable us to better understand human history

C．help us to improve farming

D．make life worth living

　　We are all called upon to make a speech at some point in life, but most of us don’t do a very good job. This article gives some suggestions on to give an effective speech.

    So, you have to give a speech—and you are terrified. You get nervous, you forget what you want to say, you stumble over words, you talk too long, and you bore your audience. Later you think,“Thank Goodness, it’s over. I’m just not good at public speaking. I hope I never have to do that again.”

　　Cheer up! It doesn’t have to be that bad. Here are some simple steps to take the pain out of speech making. Ask yourself the purpose of your speech. What is the occasion? Why are you speaking? Then, gather as many facts as you can on your subject. Spend plenty of your time doing your research. Then spend plenty of your time organizing your material so that your speech is clear and easy to follow. Use as many examples as possible, and use pictures, charts, and graphs if they help you make your points more clearly. Never forget your audience. Don’t talk over their heads, and don’t talk down to them. Treat your audience with respect. They will appreciate your thoughtfulness.

    Just remember: Be prepared. Know your subject, your audience, and the occasion. Be brief. Say what you have to say and then stop. And be yourself. Let your personality come through so that you make person-to-person contact with your audience.

　　If you follow these simple steps, you will see that you don’t have to be afraid of public speaking. In fact, you may find the experience so enjoyable that you volunteer to make more speeches! You’re not convinced yet? Give it a try and see what happens.

(1) The main idea of this article is ________.

[　　]

A．that you can improve your speaking ability

B．that a poor speaker can never change

C．to always make a short speech

D．that it is hard to make a speech

(2) Paragraph 2 implies that ________.

[　　]

A．many people are afraid of giving a speech

B．many people are happy to give a speech

C．many people don’t prepare for a speech

D．many people talk too long

(3) The phrase“talk over their heads”means ________.

[　　]

A．speak too loudly

B．look at the ceiling

C．look down upon them

D．use words and ideas that are too difficult

(4) All of the following statements are true except _______.

[　　]

A．few people know how to make good speeches

B．a lecturer does not need to organize his speech

C．research is important in preparing a speech

D．there are simple steps you can take to improve your speaking ability

(5) The title for this passage may be ________.

[　　]

A．Do Not Make a Long Speech

B．How to Give a Good Speech

C．How to Prepare for a Speech

D．Try to Enjoy a Speech

　　Britain is a popular tourist place．But tours of the country have the pros and cons.

　　Free museum. No charge for outstanding collections of art and antiquities（古董）.

　　Pop music. Britain is the only country to rival（与……匹敌）the US on the score.

　　Black cabs. London taxi drivers know where they are going even if there are never enough of them at weekends or nights.

　　Choice of food. Visitors can find everything from Ethiopian to Swedish restaurants.

　　Fashion. Not only do fashion junkies love deeply and respect highly brand names such as Vivienne Westood, Alexander Maqueen; street styles are justly loved, too.

　　Poor service.“It’s part of the image of the place People can dine out on the rudeness they have experienced,”says Professor Tony Seaton, of Luton University’s International Tourism Research Center.

　　 Poor Public transport. Trains and buses are promised to defeat the keenest tourists, though the over-crowded London tube is inexplicably（无以言表的）popular.

　　Lack of languages. Speaking slowly and clearly may not get many foreign visitors very far, even in the tourist traps.

　　Rain. Still in the number one complaint（抱怨）.

　　No air-conditioning. So that even splendidly hot summers become as unbearable as the downpours.

　　Overpriced hotels. The only European country with a higher rate of tax on hotel rooms is Denmark.

Licensing（许可）hours. Alcohol is in short after 11 pm even in“24-hour cities”.

(1) What do tourists complain most?

[　　]

A．Poor service.

B．Poor public transport.

C．Rain.

D．Overpriced hotels.

(2) What do we learn about pop music in Britain and the USA through the passage?

[　　]

A．Pop music in Britain is better than that in the USA.

B．Pop music in Britain is as good as that in the USA.

C．Pop music in Britain is worse than that in the USA.

D．Pop music in Britain is quite different from that in the USA.

(3) When is alcohol not easy to get?

[　　]

A．At 9∶00 at night.

B．At 10∶00 at night.

C．At 10∶30 at night.

D．At 12∶00 at night.

(4) Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

[　　]

A．You have to pay to visit the museums.

B．It’s very cheap to live in a hotel there.

C．You can not find Chinese food there.

D．The public transport is poor there.

　　To make an estimate means to guess the number of things in a group or guess a measurement of some kind. It sometimes means to make a calculation（计算）about the future, which is based not on exact data but on past experience. This kind of estimate has some basis, but it generally has to be changed and corrected later.

　　When you estimate a number, a size, a temperature or a weight, you do not count things one by one or use a measuring tool. You look at a group of things without counting them and try to get a rough, general idea of their number, you try to weigh something in your hand instead of on a balance. You feel hot and say“My temperature must be 38 degrees”or you look at a room and say that you estimate its area as 10×8 feet.

　　But in many situations in ordinary life we do not have time to measure things and must depend on estimates. Drivers do not have time to measure the distance between their own car and a car which is coming near. They must guess it; the guess or estimate will be based on their past experience. Experienced cooks do not trouble to measure the amount of salt they put into the soup or sugar they mix with flour.

　　 Suppose a man comes into the house and says“There are two inches of snow on the road”,his statement is only an estimate, but we believe it because we think that it is roughly correct. We put our boots on before we go into the snow.

　　For practical purposes in some situations it is safe to make estimates of quantity, but in other situations it is obviously dangerous. If it is your job to weigh drugs or make airplanes, do not depend on guessing but use an accurate instrument.

(1) In our daily life the estimate of a value or an amount is usually made ________.

[　　]

A．by further data

B．by instruments

C．by counting

D．according to one’s past experience

(2) According to the passage, measuring instruments are not always used in measuring things in everyday life because ________.

[　　]

A．people generally do not carry them along

B．it is more convenient to guess than to measure

C．they are not always ready when people need them

D．a general idea of things is-enough

(3) We can know from the man’s statement on snow that ________.

[　　]

A．he wants to inform people that it’s snowing heavily

B．it is necessary to depend on estimates

C．his estimate is quite exact

D．he has measured the level of the snow

(4) The writer thinks that depending on estimates ________.

[　　]

A．may save us both time and money

B．may bring us a sense of safety

C．does not always keep us out of danger

D．is practical but dangerous

As you move around your home, take a good look at the things you have It is likely that your living room will have a television set and a video, and your kitchen a washing machine and a microwave oven. Your bedroom drawers will be filled with almost three times as many clothes as you need. You almost certainly own a car and possibly a home computer, holiday abroad at least once a year and eat out at least once a week.

　　Now, perhaps, more than ever before, people are wondering what life is all about, and what it is for. Seeking material success is beginning to trouble large numbers of people around the world. They feel that the long-hours work culture to make more to buy more things is eating up their lives, leaving them very little time or energy for family or pastimes. Many are turning to other ways of living and downshifting is one of them.

　　Six percent of workers in Britain took the decision to downshift last year. One couple who downshifted is Daniel and Liz. They used to work in central London. He was a newspaper reporter and she used to work for an international bank. They would go to work by train every day from their large house in the suburbs（效区）leaving their two children with a nanny（保姆）. Most evenings Daniel wouldn’t get home until eight or nine o’clock, and nearly twice a month he would have to fly to New York for meetings. They both earned a large amount of money but began to feel that life was passing them by.

　　Nowadays, they run a farm in the mountains of Wales.“I always wanted to have a farm here,”says Daniel,“and we took,almost a year to make the decision to downshift, It’s taken some getting used to, but it’s been worth it. We have to think twice now about spending money on car repairs and we no longer have any holidays, However, I think it’s made us stronger as a family, and the children are a lot happier.”

Liz, however, is not quite sure,“I used to enjoy my job, even though it was hard work and long hours. I’m not really a country girl, but I suppose I’m gradually getting used to looking after the animals. One thing I do like, though, is being able to see more of my children. My advice for other people wanting to do the same is not to think about it too much or you might not do it at all.”

(1) What do the first two paragraphs tell us?

[　　]

A．People seldom work long hours to make money.

B．People hardly buy more things than necessary.

C．People are sure everything they own is in the right place.

D．People realise there is more to life than just making money.

(2) When Daniel was a reporter he ________.

[　　]

A．lived in central London

B．disliked his job

C．missed his children

D．was well paid

(3) Daniel and Liz both agree that they move to the farm ________.

[　　]

A．was easy to organise

B．has improved family life

C．was extremely expensive

D．has been a total success

(4) What does the underlined“it”in the last paragraph refer to?

[　　]

(5) The underlined word“downshifting”in the second paragraph means ________.

[　　]

A．repairing your car by yourself.

B．spending money carefully

C．moving out to the countryside to live a simpler and better life

D．living in a big house in the suburbs and dining out once a week

Can you imagine what our life will be like in the year 2050? Perhaps you will be flying off for a holiday on the moon, or maybe you will be taking your dog for a walk in virtual（虚拟的）reality. We recently carried out a survey（调查）of 1000 people from different countries find out what they think life will be like in the future. The results clearly show both our hopes and fears.

　　The survey suggests that friendship—one of the most important human relationships—will have changed dramatically（显著地）. People will make friends mainly through the Internet. What is more, a large number of people will come across their future spouses（配偶）in this way! Computers will have become Completely necessary by 2050. Even now, some people begin to regard them as their best friends! Others, however, say that we will become much more separated and estranged（疏远的）from each other because we will have little real human contact.

　　Education will have changed a lot, too. As more and more children will be using computers in schools, certain abilities, such as mental arithmetic（心算）won’t be necessary since there will be computer programs for most calculations（计算）. Even writing by hand—at least to some extent—will have become a thing of the past.

　　According to the survey, home life will be more and more comfortable. Most people believe that by 2050 robots will be doing housework and we will rely mainly on ready-made food. A lot of people think that we might only cook for fun in the future.

　　Space exploration（探险）will become increasingly popular. Fifty percent of the people we talked to believe that man will regularly visit Mars. They also believe that travel on our own planet will probably change. Almost everyone thinks that there will be no cars in the city center. Some even think that environmentally—friendly（利于环保的）electric of solar-powered cars will have replaced the cars we use now.

　　Pollution is something that worries us very much. Some fear that it will continue to get worse, and that it well be impossible for us to live on our polluted planet. Others even foresee（预言）that one day we’ll have to pay for clean air.

　　On the other hand, people seem to be quite optimistic about the benefits of genetic（遗传）engineering, as they think scientists will use it to cure diseases like cancers and AIDS. If scientists manage to find a cure for these, we’ll have a much healthier society.

　　Some people worry about the future, while others are full of hope and confidence（信心）. No matter how dark or bright it may seem, it is up to us to look after our planet and try to make it a better globe to live on.

(1) Many people believe that in 2050, we will ________.

[　　]

A．not pay for computers

B．seldom leave our homes

C．not have any real friends

D．find partners and friends mainly through computers

(2) The passage suggests that in 2050 ________.

[　　]

A．half of the world population will have traveled to Mars

B．students will write with typewriters only

C．cooking will not be easy to people

D．lessons taught at school and the ways in which they are taught will be very different

(3) Some people believe that pollution will have ________ by 2050.

[　　]

A．disappeared

B．killed most of the people on the planet

C．become an even worse problem

D．made our planet a warmer place to live on

(4) Many people think that by 2050 ________.

[　　]

A．there will be a cure for cancer and AIDS

B．people will have stopped dying

C．scientists will solve all the problems we face

D．people won’t get diseases

To us it seems so natural to put up an umbrella to keep the water off when it rains. But actually the umbrella was not invented as protection against the rain. Its first use was as a shade（遮光物）against the sun!

　　Nobody knows who first invented it, but the umbrella was used in very ancient times. Probably the first to use it were the Chinese in the eleventh century B．C.

　　 We know that the umbrella was used in ancient Egypt and Babylon as a sunshade. And there was a strange thing connected with its use: it became a symbol（象征）of honor. In the Far East in ancient times, the umbrella was allowed to be used only by those in high office.

　　In Europe, the Greeks were the first to use the umbrella as a sunshade. And the umbrella was in commonly used in ancient Greece. But it is believed that the first persons in Europe to use the umbrella as protection against the rain were the ancient Romans.

　　During the Middle Ages, the use of the umbrella practically disappeared. Then it appeared again in Italy in the late sixteenth century. And again it was considered as a symbol of power. By 1680, the umbrella appeared in France, and later in England.

　　By the eighteenth century, the umbrella was used against rain throughout most of Europe. Umbrellas have not changed much in style during all this time, though they have become much lighter in weight. It wasn’t until the twentieth century that women’s umbrellas began to be made, in a whole variety of colours.

(1) According to this passage, the umbrella was probably first invented in ancient ________.

[　　]

(2) Which of the following statements is not true about the umbrella?

[　　]

A．No one exactly knows who was the inventor of the umbrella.

B．The umbrella was first invented to be used as protection against the sun.

C．The umbrella changed much in style in the eighteenth century.

D．In Europe, the Greeks were the first to use the umbrella as a sunshade.

(3) A strange feature（特征）of the umbrella’s use is that it was used as ________.

[　　]

A．protection against rain

B．a shade against the sun

C．a symbol of honour and power

D．women’s decoration（装饰）

(4) In Europe, the umbrella was first used against the rain ________.

[　　]

A．during the Middle Ages

B．by the eighteenth century

C．in Rome

D．in Greece

(5) This passage talks mainly about ________.

[　　]

A．when and how the umbrella was invented

B．why the umbrella was so popular in Europe

C．the development of the umbrella

D．the history and use of the umbrella